Environmental:
Here are some facts about the environmental impact of plastic bags:
Plastic bags don't biodegrade, they photodegrade - breaking down into smaller and smaller toxic bits, contaminating soil and waterways and entering the food web when animals accidentally ingest them. Some figures indicate that plastic bags could take over 1000 years to break down. This means not one plastic bag has ever naturally biodegraded.
Each year, an estimated 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags are consumed worldwide. That comes out to over one million per minute. Billions end up as litter each year.
95% of manufactured goods are in landfills within 3 months.
According to the EPA, more than 380 billion plastic bags, sacks and wraps are consumed in the U.S. each year.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the U.S. goes through 100 billion plastic shopping bags annually. (Estimated cost to retailers is $4 billion) China uses 3 billion plastic bags each day!
Approximately 60 – 100 million barrels of oil are required to make the world’s plastic bags each year.
Fortunately, some governments around the world are taking the initiative to deal with the environmental impact of plastic bags by either banning plastic bags or discouraging their usage.
In March of 2002, Republic of Ireland became the first country to introduce a plastic bag tax, or PlasTax.
Designed to rein in their rampant consumption of 1.2 billion plastic shopping bags per year, the tax resulted in a 90% drop in consumption, and approximately 1 billion fewer bags consumed annually. To complete the win-win scenario, approximately $9.6 million was raised from the tax in the first year, which is earmarked for a green fund established to benefit the environment.
Several other countries and cities around the world are now considering implementing a similar tax, including UK, Australia and New York City.
How does it work?
First of all, the purpose is to change consumer behavior, not to generate revenue, moving habits from mindless consumption, to reducing and reusing.
In a nutshell, it's a simple market-based solution in the form of a consumption tax. Individuals pay a fee $.15 per plastic bag consumed at check out.
Retailers save money since they only have to stock a smaller quantity of bags (in Ireland, on average they were spending $50 million a year on single-use plastic bags before the tax). Many retailers are also now benefiting from selling reusable bags.
Administration is straightforward and retailers keep simple records on purchasing and receipts, while the government monitors retailer compliance and collects revenue.
What are the results?
Consumption has dropped approximately 90%, from 1.2 billion to 230 million per year.
Litter has been dramatically reduced.
Approximately 18,000,000 liters of oil have been saved due to reduced production of bags.
Summary
The PlasTax is a major success. Consumers have widely adopted using reusable shopping bags and retailers no longer incur the costs associated with giving away free bags.
At the end of the day using reusable shopping bags is the real answer!
Reusable shopping bags can be purchased at the Lovington MainStreet office!
Downtown Beautification:
We believe that by working together we can help Lovington and our Mainstreet members thrive and grow. After-all, good neighbors helping
each other just can't lose. Our history and our future are ours to share together. Come work with us and help us to move forward!
DPAC Proposals:
Every project needs a plan. Our mission is to help facilitate the revitalization of Mainstreet Lovington so we have been working diligently to
develop a plan of action that will work to succeed in our goals. With the help of our members, and the mainstreet experts at University of New Mexico
we have been able to use our resources to develop a strategic resource to help guide us into the future.
Download and read through it yourself through the link below:
Lovington DPAC Master Plan (PDF, 147 Mb)
